Operation TPTATAMDSHWMTBAFITR
by SecretAgent99
Summary: Ikarishipping. In which a guy by the name of Zero and a girl by the name of Najika try to get pessimistic Paul and optimistic Dawn together. Unfortunately, the job is alot harder than it seems. Title explained in first chapter. Edited as of 12/09/08.
1. The Plan

**Edit 12/09/08- This story is now completly edited. I just fixed all the grammatical errors and made some stuff flow better.**

**Hi everybody! This is my first story on FanFiction and it's on Ikarishipping! The explanation on the name is below. Also, if you want info of my fan characters go to my homepage, their bios are on there.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon or its original characters. I do own my two fan characters Zero and Najika. **

Tie Paul To A Tree And Make Dawn Save Him While Making Them Both Accidentally Fall Into The River

* * *

Chapter 1: The Plan

Najika groaned quietly.

How had she gotten herself into this?

Zero had decided to play matchmaker again and try to get two trainers that were acquainted with each other together.

Who were these trainers you ask?

Well, they are none other than Paul Shinji and Dawn Hikari. Dawn was a friend of Ash, whom Najika knew because she had battled against him before he entered the Kanto league. They kept in touch and Najika had run into Ash and his friends while she was traveling through Sinnoh.

But that's beside the point.

Zero had run into Paul before and battled him, and like most people, Zero lost to Paul. When Zero had met Dawn, he got it into his mind that he just _had _to get Dawn and Paul together because they were complete opposites. When Zero found out that Dawn already knew Paul because he and Ash were rivals, that just made him even more determined to get them together.

The only person who knew about Zero's evil scheme was Najika, but she had found out by accident. Since she had found out, Zero forced her into helping him.

She _had _tried to get away, but he tied her up.

Najika and Zero now sat quietly in hiding dressed in ninja outfits with ski hats over their faces so nobody would know who they really were. The only thing different between them was that Najika had her hands tied together and she had a collar around her neck with a leash attached, which Zero was holding.

"Now Najika, if you had been a good girl and willingly helped me out, you wouldn't have your hands tied up and a collar around your neck," Zero said.

"You're insane, you know. Why would I even give a second thought about helping you play matchmaker? If we get found out I'll be humiliated for life and it'll be all your fault."

"Suck it up and be a man, err, woman." Zero quickly corrected himself as he got a death glare sent to him by Najika.

"The plan is simple. We simply wait here until Paul comes along. We ambush him, knock him out with knockout gas, and tie him to a tree facing over the river that's about ¼ of a mile from here. We put his bag on the ground 30 feet away from him so he can't possibly get to it. Then, since Ash, Brock, and Dawn are heading in the same direction as Paul, we create a rockslide. Dawn will get separated from the other two, and then you use your powers to turn into an adorable Cherubi. Dawn's a sucker for cute Pokémon, so she'll hopefully try to catch you. If she doesn't you steal her hat. You'll then run away from her and she'll follow you either way. You lead her to Paul, she'll see Paul, and she'll try to help him out. Now, she'll have to climb up the tree because that's the only way that she'll be able to get him down, and after she's untied him I'll use my powers to make the branch snap and then…"

"Are you crazy!? They could get hurt!"

"Don't interrupt me. Now, as I was saying, I'll use my powers to make the branch snap and they'll fall into the river. Now because you are such a worrywart Najika, I'll use my powers to make sure they don't get hurt. The only things that will get hurt are their egos. Now, either Dawn will save Paul or Paul will save Dawn because the river's waters are fast and if one of them doesn't help the other they will both get swept downstream. Hopefully, Paul will save Dawn because then once they get out she'll be thanking him and be all over him asking if there is any way that she could repay him. Now, since Dawn would still be separated from Ash and Brock, she'll have to travel with Paul until they get out of the forest. While they are traveling with each other, they'll both realize their true feelings for each other and they'll get together! I tell you it's gonna work! They may not get together right away, but sooner or later they will because it's like a seed was planted inside of them while they spent time together, and sooner or later that seed will sprout and grow into a plant. They will develop feelings for each other and those feelings will keep on growing until one of them admits that they like each other and then, BAM! They'll get together." Zero finished with a triumphant smile on his face.

Najika looked at him with both shock and awe written all over her face.

(Even though you couldn't see her face because it was covered by a ski mask.)

She was in awe that he could actually think up such an elaborate plan, but she was shocked because his crazy plan could actually work!

"_How wonderful. This crazy plan of his will actually work and at the moment I can't find any loopholes in it. Goodbye celebrity status, hello paper bag." _

Najika pulled out a brown paper bag with "Kick Me" written on the back in big letters and stuck it on her head and went into her depression corner.

"My life is ruined…" she said sadly.

"Oh, come on. Stop being a baby. You don't have a very hard job to do and-wait…..I hear someone coming. Get ready!"

Zero quickly untied Najika's hands and took the collar off her neck.

"Now don't even _think_ about trying to get away. If you do I'll post your diary entries all over the internet" he hissed quietly.

"Okay, whatever…hey! How'd you get my diary and how dare you threat-ooof!" Najika was about to finish her sentence but was shut up as Zero quickly shoved a cookie into her mouth.

"Shut up!" he whispered quietly and they both focused their attention in the direction of the crunching noise that was coming around the bend…

* * *

**Chapter 1 is done! To everybody who reads and review, Thanks a lot! Also, Ikarishipping won't start to appear until the 3rd chapter, for everybody who wants to know. - SecretAgent99**


	2. Capture

**Hello everybody! Hopefully, the story will seem more interesting now with the second chapter up and I will get reviews! Also, I forget to put a key in the first chapter, so I'm putting it in this chapter.**

"blah blah blah..." - talking

_"blah blah blah..." _- thinking

**So to everyone who thought that Najika said something to Zero about losing her celebrity status in italics; that was really her thinking. Sorry for the misunderstandings, I'll make sure to put keys in the next chapters. **

**Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon or any of its original characters. I do own my two fan characters Zero and Najika.**

* * *

Chapter 2: Capture

Now, the crunching noise that Zero and Najika heard in the previous chapter was really Paul's shoes hitting the gravel road as he continued on his journey to the next city where he would get his 8th gym badge.

At this moment in time Paul was in a bad mood.

Paul, _The __**Great**__ Paul,_ had lost a battle to a kid several years younger than him.

The worst part is that this "kid" was a girl and this "girl" beat him with her EEVEE. Yes, I repeat, an Eevee. Paul just couldn't stomach the fact that a pathetic normal type Pokémon like Eevee had beaten the crud out of his **Torterra.** Yes, he admitted that Eevee were rare and that several of its evolutions were decent, but SERIOUSLY. **AN EEVEE! HE LOST TO AN EEVEE! **Right now Paul just wanted to pull his hair out and scream angrily to the sky.

"Stupid, stupid, stupid. Curse that Eevee. Curse all Eevee's. Curse Arceus for even creating…" Paul stopped short as he heard a rustling in the bushes.

He paused for a second, thinking that the rustling would continue, but the bush stayed still. He muttered something to himself and continued walking on but was stopped by someone yelling……

"Hiyah! Prepare to meet your doom and destiny!" Zero yelled crazily as he jumped out of the bushes and threw a knockout gas capsule at Paul which hit him straight in the head then fell to the ground.

But nothing happened!

"………………………No! Curses! That thing was supposed work! I spent twenty dollars on that!" Zero yelled angrily as he stomped on the capsule, trying to make it go off and release the gas sealed inside of it.

Paul looked at Zero like he was insane, then smirked and proceeded to pull out a poke ball.

"Hmph. Pathetic. A ninja like you can't even capture someone who's standing still let alone make a knockout gas capsule work properly? Alright Ursaring! Come on ou-oof!" Paul slumped to the ground which revealed standing behind him Najika with a pot in her hand.

Zero looked at her stunned.

"Whoa. Good save. For a moment there I thought my flawless plan wasn't going to work! By the way………where did you get that pot?" Zero had a confused look on his face. Najika sighed.

"Zero, you should know very well by now that I can use my powers to create alternate dimensions for me to store stuff in and that I can get things out of those dimensions whenever I feel like it. Now come on, we have to hurry up and get him to the river before he wakes up." Najika said with an annoyed look on her face.

"Huh? Oh, right. Okay, help me carry him" Zero quickly hurried over to Paul.

Najika sighed.

So far, everything was going as planned.

_30 minutes and several accidents later…_

"Whew! We finally made it!" Najika gasped as she helped set Paul down.

They were now at the tree that Zero planned to tie Paul to. They had to work quickly since they didn't know when Paul would wake up.

"Man, who knew he was so heavy…" Zero panted and collapsed on the ground next to the unconscious Paul.

"Hey, Najika. Here's his bag. Go put it over next to that big rock." Zero motioned to a rock about 30 feet away.

Najika was about to complain, but she stopped herself.

"Fine…" she grumbled.

She picked up his bag and walked over to the rock. As she was setting the bag down, a thought suddenly occurred to her. A thought that she wish had occurred 30 minutes ago. She slowly turned around, her left eye twitching. She walked over to Zero and said in the calmest possible voice that she could muster up, "Zero………why didn't we use our powers to teleport us to this tree?"

Silence.

(For about 3 minutes)

"Well…" he started off, "I really don't know…"

"WHAT!?" Najika said incredulously. "You mean that the whole time we were carrying this dead weight otherwise know as Paul the thought didn't once occur to you that we could simply teleport ourselves here!?"

"No, it didn't. Don't scream so loud you might wake him up." Zero said harshly.

Suddenly, a giddy smile appeared on his face.

He chuckled and said "We both must have had blonde moments even though I'm not a blonde!"

He burst out into laughter and started to roll on the ground, clenching his stomach.

Najika's anger rose to dangerous levels.

Oh, what she could do to shut him up. The possibilities were endless.

An evil smirk appeared on her face as she played out some future torture events in her mind.

Finally, Zero stopped laughing and got up.

He looked at Paul, looked at the tree branch, and then he looked at the rope that he had got out of his bag. He clapped his hands together and POOF!, there was Paul, tied up to the tree branch. At least he hadn't woken up yet.

Zero turned towards Najika with an evil smirk on his face.

"Okay, the first part is done. Now we just have to go find the others and create a rockslide."

Najika grimaced.

She still couldn't believe she was helping him. I mean really, all she would have to do to get out of this is use her powers to teleport her somewhere else. Ah, but Zero had her diary, and she had no idea how to get her diary back from Zero without him posting it all over the internet first.

Zero used his powers to bring up a 3-D map of the surrounding area.

"Ah ha! There they are. Good, they're close to a hill. That will give a good reason as to why the rockslide happened. They'll obviously think that a Pokémon accidentally ran into a large boulder and the force of that Pokémon hitting the boulder caused the rockslide. Come on Najika, let's go." Zero used his powers to make the 3-D map disappear and they both headed off in the direction of Ash, Dawn, and Brock.

* * *

**Chapter 2 is done and chapter 3 will be up shortly! Thanks to everyone who r&r's and who puts this story as their favorites or on their watch list! - SecretAgent99**


	3. Rockslides,Theft,and Wet Clothes Oh My!

**Hello again! Here's chapter 3! Ikarishipping starts to appear in this chapter! The key and disclaimer are below.**

**Key:**

"blah blah blah" - talking

_"blah blah blah" _- thinking

" blah blah blah ( Blah blah blah)" - Pokémon speaking/human translation

**Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon or any of its original characters. I do own my two fan characters Zero and Najika.**

* * *

Chapter 3: Rockslides, Theft, and Wet Clothes. Oh My!

"Alright! Let's get a move on!" Ash pumped his hand up into the air as Ash, Dawn, and Brock walked down the road that lead to Sunyshore City where the 8th gym badge was located.

"Pika Pi!" Pikachu said happily, agreeing with its trainer.

Brock chuckled

"Alright you two, calm down. You don't want to waste all your energy on the first day that we've been traveling. We have a long way to go and we have to get through this small forest first before we'll be on the seaside route."

"Yeah! Brock's right!" Dawn chirped.

"We need to save our energy for training and battles! I have a contest coming up soon and I want to save my energy to try out some new combinations with my Pokémon!"

Ash stopped and thought for a moment and then smiled.

"You're right Dawn! It'll be a waste of energy if we just keep on jumping around and talking! Let's go! Forward, march!"

Ash started to march off into the distance, and Dawn and Brock just sweat dropped.

"He's really excited about getting his 8th gym badge isn't he?" Dawn commented.

"Yup. He also probably wants to get there soon so he'll have a chance to battle against Paul before he leaves for the League" Brock said with a smile on his face.

The two started off after Ash who now was far off into the distance.

_10 minutes later…_

Dawn and Brock had finally caught up to Ash and they were now walking together as a group.

As they were turning around the bend that bordered the bottom of a hill, a rumbling could be heard. The rumbling continued and it seemed to be getting louder and louder. Ash finally realized what the sound was, but he was a second to late. Rocks were tumbling down the hillside, kicking up dust and other small debris.

"Ah! Rockslide! Everybody get out of the way and take cover!" Ash yelled as he dashed for the nearest thing that he could hide behind, which unfortunately was Brock.

"Eek!" Dawn yelled as a rock came tumbling towards her.

She tried to move but she was petrified.

"Dawn! Get out of the way!" Brock and Ash yelled in unison.

"Pika Pikachu!" cried Pikachu as he feared for Dawn's safety.

Suddenly, a small Cherubi with a scar on it's face ran up to Dawn and pushed her out of the way just as the boulder was about to hit her.

"_Phew, that was a close one. Boy, Zero's so going to get it when I catch up with him. Dawn could have gotten killed!" _thought Najika/Cherubi.

The boulder rolled past Dawn and Najika/Cherubi and crashed into a tree, sending out splinters of wood and puffs of dirt. Several more boulders rolled down the hill, and then, it was all over. As the dust settled, the group saw a now huge rock wall separating Dawn from Ash and Brock.

"Dawn! Are you okay!? Answer me!" Brock yelled.

"Yeah I'm okay. I don't know what happened but something pushed me out of the way and –eeeeeekkk!!" Dawn suddenly squealed.

"AH! Dawn! What's the matter!? What's happening?" Ash yelled out while he tried to climb the rock wall.

"OHMYGOSH! This _adorable_ Cherubi saved me! Oh, poor thing, it's got a scar on its face…..oh well! I MUST catch it!" Dawn yelled in delight, hearts in her eyes.

Ash and Brock sweat dropped.

"Looks like she's alright." Brock said as he scratched his head.

"Yeah." Ash replied as he let out a sigh of relief.

"Ack! No! Don't go away! Cherubi! Come back! Guys, it looks like I can't get over this rock wall! We'll have to find our own ways on how to get out of this forest. I'll catch you guys later, the Cherubi is running away!" and with that she took off after Najika/Cherubi.

"Uh, okay! Just be careful and don't get hurt!" Brock yelled back nervously.

"No need to worry!" Dawn called back as her voice became softer as she got farther and farther away.

"And that's when we worry the most," both boys said at the same time.

"Pika pika pi," Pikachu said with a sweat drop appearing on his forehead.

The boys gathered their things and started off.

_Meanwhile somewhere else in the forest…_

Najika/Cherubi stopped running to take a break.

"Cher Cher Cherubi bi (Man, I'm tired. Who knew it was hard to sprint when you're cherry shaped with stubs for legs. Curse Zero for making me turn into a Cherubi. Why couldn't it have been a Buneary or something?)"

Najika/Cherubi collapsed to the ground and panted heavily.

"Cher Cherubi (Maybe I'm out of shape……)"

"Ah ha! I found you! Whew, I'm tired!" Dawn said as she wiped the sweat of her face.

She quickly pulled out a poke ball containing her Piplup.

"Alright! Let's catch that Cherubi. Piplup, come on ou-hey! Give me back my hat! You dirty little thief!" Dawn said angrily as Najika/Cherubi jumped up and grabbed her hat with its mouth and took off running in the direction of the river.

"_Whoa, that was a close one. There is __**no way **__I'm going to battle Dawn. I'm too tired from running. Curse these stubby little legs…" _

Najika/Cherubi spotted the river in the distance.

Seeing an angry Dawn behind her with steam coming out of her ears, she put on a burst of speed.

"Stop! Thief! How dare you steal my hat! When I get a hold of you I'm going to rip you in half, you hear! Nobody even thinks about touching or stealing my hat! Get ready to feel the wrath of- ahhh!" Dawn suddenly cried out as she tripped over a rock and landed face flat next to the tree that Paul was tied to.

"_Time to make my escape. My job here is done and I need to get away from Zero as quickly as possible before he forces me to do something else."_

Najika/Cherubi set Dawn's hat at the base of the tree and took off running back into the bushes.

"Owwww, my head…" Dawn groaned as she got up. She spotted her hat and was about to pick it up when she heard a voice.

"Hmph. Pathetic and clumsy like always."

Dawn quickly looked up and gasped.

"Paul! What are you doing up there!? And why are you tied to that branch?"

"It's none of your business Troublesome. Just get me down from here." Paul growled.

"I won't untie you unless you tell me what happened. And you have to say my name and please."

"Fine." He sighed. "Some crazy guy dressed up as a ninja attacked me and knocked me out. When I finally woke up I found myself tied to this tree branch hanging over the river. Now,** Dawn**, will you _please_ untie me?"

He stared at her with dagger eyes, which made her feel uncomfortable and nervous.

"Oh, y-yeah, sure w-whatever" she stuttered as she quickly climbed up the tree and began untying him.

"_What is this strange feeling inside of me? I mean come on, this is Paul. It's not like I like him or anything, do I? All I'm doing is helping him get down from this tree."_

Dawn thought to herself as she fumbled with rope.

She frowned.

This rope was tied pretty well. Whoever had tied Paul to the tree branch had done a pretty good job. Paul growled.

"Hurry up, Troublesome. I don't have all day."

"I'm hurrying as fast as I can." Dawn whined.

"Whoever tied you to this tree tied you pretty well. Oh! There we go!" Dawn exclaimed happily as the rope came undone.

Paul got up and stretched his arms.

"Showtime…" a voice on the other side of the river hidden behind some bushes said quietly.

Just as Paul and Dawn were about to climb down the tree, a loud crack was heard and the tree vibrated slightly.

"Uh oh, that can't be good…" Paul said.

Suddenly the branch snapped and they both fell downward.

"Ahhhh! Help!" Dawn cried out.

"Dawn!" Paul yelled.

Wait, he **did not **just say her name without her asking him to. You see, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, down, he _slightly _liked her. Stupid hormones, making him say her name because he feared for her safety. He couldn't believe he had slipped up. He was a master at hiding his feelings from people, and he planned to keep it that way. He could not let her see him like this! Stupid hormones. Suppress! Suppress! Anyway, back to the story……

They both fell into the river (Safely of course. Good ol' Zero making sure nobody gets hurt.), and came up gasping for air as the river currents were strong and they began to float downstream.

Dawn seemed to be having a harder time than Paul in trying to swim towards shore.

"Help! The currents are too strong! I can't get to the riverbank!" She cried out in despair.

Seeing her dilemma, Paul quickly swam over to her and grabbed a hold of her arm and pulled her towards the riverbank. Once they got there they both collapsed on the ground gasping for air.

"Paul…thanks…for…saving me…I…owe you." Dawn in-between gasps.

"Hn" was all Paul said.

They both got up and looked at themselves.

They were both soaking wet from head to toe. The only things that weren't wet were their bags. Paul's was still over by the rock and Dawn had taken hers off before she had climbed the tree. Paul walked over to his bag, picked it up, and began to walk away.

Dawn noticed this and ran to catch up with him after she had gotten her bag.

"Paul, wait! Don't leave without me!" she called out to him.

Paul stopped and looked at her.

"…What makes you think that I'm going to let you travel with me? Did you get tired of that Pathetic Loser?" he snapped, clearly annoyed that Dawn had stopped him.

"Ash is not a pathetic loser and no, I did not get tired of him!" She spat at him, her face turning red.

Paul smirked. "Well, then why aren't you with him?"

"Well…you see…" Dawn said nervously, looking down and drawing a circle on the ground with her boot.

"We were all walking along when this rockslide happened, and I got separated from Ash and Brock. When the rockslide was over and the dust had settled, there was a big rock wall separating me from Ash and Brock. Then I noticed that Cherubi that stole my hat and I went off to go try and catch it. I told the boys that we would have to find a way to get out of the forest by ourselves. Well, I ran off after the Cherubi and as I was about to battle it, it stole my hat and I chased after it and well, you know the rest……" Dawn gave him an innocent smile.

"Just use the map that you should be carrying with you." He said harshly.

"Well……you see…I don't have a map with me. Brock is always the one who carries that kind of stuff……" Dawn trailed off as she gave him a pleading look.

"Fine. You can travel with me, but ONLY until we get out of this forest. And make sure that you stay out of my way."

And with that Paul turned around and started to walk off.

Dawn quickly hurried after him and they began their trek through the forest.

_Meanwhile back across the river…_

"Yes, phase two complete."

Zero; now in the form of a Pachirisu; turned towards Najika with the grin of the Cheshire cat plastered to his face; now in the form of an Eevee.

"Silly silly Najika. I can't believe you thought your job was over. You're lucky that I decided to let this slide. Though now I have to put that collar back on you." I

In a flash, before Najika/Eevee could respond, Zero/Pachirisu had clamped the collar on her neck and attached the leash to it.

"What do you mean my jobs not over? What else are we going to do?" Najika/Eevee whined.

"We're going to follow them secretly. I have to see what's going to happen between those two. Now come along, they're getting farther away as we speak." Zero/Pachirisu quickly dashed off in pursuit of the two trainers while dragging Najika/Eevee along with him.

* * *

**Chapter 3 is up and done! I'm about 3/4 done with chapter 4, and I think chapter 5 will be the last chapter. I haven't decided yet. So, this will be updated again in about a coupe days, so keep on checking in! Thanks to everyone who read and reviews! - SecretAgent99**


	4. Chapter 4

**Alright! Chapter 4 is up! I know I said I would update like, 10 days ago, but my muse has decided it would rather read Kingdom Hearts stories rather than finish writing this story. **

**(sobs) I'm sorry! On to the key and disclaimer!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything that is from Pokémon or that relates to Pokémon. I do own Zero and Najika.**

**Key: **

"blah blah" - talking

_"blah blah" _- thinking

_blah blah blah _- Paul's conscience aka little voice in head

Note: Zero and Najika are in their Pokémon forms throughout this whole chapter.

* * *

Chapter 4: Piggy Back Rides, Sneezing, and an angry group of Beedrill

Dawn sighed.

She and Paul had been walking for at least 3 hours and they still weren't out of the forest. Some "small" forest it was. Then again, they had come across a few obstacles in their path.

Like the angry mother Chatot that thought they were about to harm it's babies, or the group of Stantler that decided to confuse them by lighting up their horns, and the rickety old rope bridge that went across a small chasm that Dawn **almost **fell off of because she was admiring Paul who was in front of her rather than paying attention to where she was stepping.

(She told him though that she was watching the clouds go by when she accidentally placed her foot on a rotting wooden plank that ended up breaking under her weight.)

"Paul, can we stop and take a break? My feet are hurting like crazy and I'm still tired from running away from that angry mother Chatot." Dawn pleaded to him.

She would do anything to stop and take a break. Well, maybe not _anything._

"No. It's your fault we got chased by that Chatot anyway. I told you not to mess with that baby and you did anyway. Besides, if we stop and take a break we won't make it out of this forest before nightfall." Paul said coldly.

"But _Paulie_, I can't go any longer. Can't you be nice for once and let me take a break?" Dawn gave him the puppy dog pout.

Oh, but it wasn't going to work on Paul. He had become extremely annoyed when she had called him _Paulie._

Paul shuddered.

The name sent shivers up his spine just thinking about it. He wasn't going to stop for anything. They were going to keep on going, and if she didn't like it, fine. He would just leave her behind.

"No. N.O. You got it?" Paul said gruffly and turned around.

He continued to walk and didn't look back. His inner conscience was bugging him though.

_What the heck are you doing Paul? Don't leave her behind. If something happens to her it'll be your fault. And besides, you know you like her company. _

"_No, I do not like her company. She is an annoying girl and weak trainer."_

_You know you're lying to yourself. You just don't want to admit that you have a tiny crush on her. You're too prideful to show your emotions._

"_I am not"_

_Am too._

"_AM NOT. Besides, she isn't pretty at all."_

_Liar_

"_And she's clumsy and troublesome"_

_Liar, Liar, Pants on fire._

Paul could feel his face slightly heating up as he continued to walk.

Stupid hormones.

He hated that _girl._

Why should he get so worked up about arguing with his conscience about that _girl _anyway?

I mean, she wasn't even following him, right? He couldn't hear her footsteps behind him, so that meant that she wasn't following him. The thought saddened him a bit, but he quickly snapped out of it when he realized what he was feeling.

He quickened his pace so he could get out of the forest faster.

Suddenly, he heard a running sound. He continued to walk but focused his attention and hearing on the sound of someone running. It seemed to be getting closer and closer and then Paul suddenly felt something landing on his back. He almost fell over, but was able to keep his balance.

He whipped his head around to see Dawn attempting to get on his back.

"Troublesome, just _**what **_do you think your doing?" He said angrily as he pushed her away from him.

Dawn had a determined look on her face.

"If you're not going to let me take a break, then you're giving me a piggy back ride. I'll keep on trying to get on you if you keep on trying to get away, so don't think you can get out of it. Unless, you want to stop and take a break that is."

Dawn gave him a look that said she wasn't going to back down.

Paul simply looked at her and started to walk away.

"_Yeah right, like she would really try to keep on getting on me…." _

Paul's train of thought was interrupted as he felt Dawn jump on him again. He shoved her off and continued to keep on walking.

Then, she did it again, and again, and again until Paul finally gave up.

"Alright. Enough already. I'll give you a piggy back ride."

He growled quietly at the sight of Dawn smiling triumphantly.

"Thank you Paul. It's _so _sweet of you to offer." Dawn purred.

Oh, Dawn would cherish this moment forever.

She had actually beaten him in something!

Paul on the other hand wanted to stuff a sock in her mouth to shut her up.

He had lost to a girl _again,_ but this time the girl was a friend of his rival. That only made it worse. Dawn jumped on Paul and they, err, **Paul,** began walking again. After about 15 minutes Dawn soon found herself to be getting bored, so she amused herself by playing with a lock of Paul's hair. Half of Paul wanted to drop her right there, but the other part of Paul, could he even say it, liked it.

Paul acted as if he didn't notice and continued on walking.

Things remained silent the whole time until a sudden gust of wind blew Paul's hair in Dawn's face.

Uh oh, Dawn now had a problem.

"Ah…..ahh …..ah" Dawn tried to hold back the sneeze, but failed miserably. "ACHOO!" Dawn let out a colossal sneeze and sneezed **right on Paul.**

Silence.

"Oh my. I-I'm s-so s-s-orry. I'll get y-you a …" Dawn started to apologize but was cut of by Paul whose voice was dripping with anger.

"Off. NOW."

"Yes sir!"

Dawn quickly got of Paul in hopes of not getting murdered and quickly began searching through her bag for a package of tissues.

She praised Arceus silently in her head when she found one.

She quickly jumped up and handed it to Paul, who hadn't moved a muscle.

"I'llwalknowI'mfeelingbettermylegsdon'thurt,I'llshutupnow." Dawn said quickly and took a few steps back from Paul.

Dawn's face had turned red with embarrassment and she looked down at her boots so she wouldn't have to make eye contact with Paul.

_Meanwhile in an invisible soundproof bubble 40 feet away…_

"Oh. My. Gosh. Did you see the snot coming out of her nose!?" Zero/Pachirisu began to laugh hysterically while rolling on the ground inside of the invisible soundproof bubble.

"That……was…the most disgusting thing that I have ever seen!" he said in-between laughs.

Najika/Eevee on the other hand looked like she had seen a ghost.

"She **sneezed** on him. She _actually _**SNEEZED **on him! Arceus help her. I can't believe she did that." Najika/Eevee said with a look of utter shock and horror on her face.

She looked back at Zero/Pachirisu and noticed that he was starting to cough, or was it choking?

"Ah ha ha ha……(cough cough)…ack! Help me…..I think… ah ha…that I'm choking on…aha ha… my own …(cough cough)…on my own spit…he he he…Najika get over here and help me……aha ha ha ha ha…(cough cough)."

Najika/Eevee sweat dropped at the sight before her.

Zero/Pachirisu was choking on his own spit. What an accomplishment. She got up and walked over to him. She stared at him for a few seconds, raised her right paw, and punched him in the chest.

"_Yup, that worked. He's not choking any more….now he's just gasping for air…." _Najika/Eevee looked at Zero/Pachirisu oddly.

"Arceus help me I'm stuck with a psychopath." Najika/Eevee said as she continued to watch Zero/Pachirisu.

_Now back to Dawn and Paul….._

Paul got a tissue and wiped the snot off him.

"_That is just gross. I can't believe she sneezed on me. Troublesome girl….." _Paul looked at Dawn.

She was staring at the ground.

He sighed and handed the package of tissues back to Dawn.

"Here." he mumbled.

Dawn looked up and took the package out of his hands then focused her attention back to the ground. Paul looked at her for a second then started to walk off.

He glanced back and saw that she wasn't following, so he called out, "Hurry up Troublesome we don't have all day!"

Dawn looked up again and realized that he was motioning to her to come with him, so she quickly grabbed her bag which was still on the ground and dashed off after him.

They walked in silence for about another hour as the sun started to go down. Paul's conscience had been eating away at him the whole time, telling him to tell her that her sneezing on him was an accident and that he forgave her.

He didn't want to do it, but she looked miserable and she was falling behind.

Probably because she felt so bad and he hadn't said anything about it. He finally gave in to his conscience and stopped walking, waiting for Dawn to catch up with him. When she caught up with him she avoided eye contact and stared at a tree.

Paul sighed and rubbed his forehead.

"Listen Dawn, what happened a while ago was an accident. It's not your fault."

The next part he had to force out of his mouth.

It was like saying that Ash was a better trainer than him. He wasn't, of course, or at least Paul thought, but saying what he said next was _like _admitting that Ash was a better trainer.

"I forgive you."

Dawn looked up at him with eyes as wide as a Jigglypuff's.

"You really mean it?" she said shocked

"Yes, I do. Now let's get going we're losing daylight." He said calmly.

Suddenly, Dawn grabbed his arm and began dragging him.

"Just what do you think you're doing?" He asked sharply.

Dawn replied in a sing-song voice while bouncing around.

"We have to get moving! We're losing daylight just like you said. Come on let's go. Pick up the pace!" Dawn let go of Paul's arm and began to skip forward along the path.

"_Why is she so happy all of a sudden? All I did was apologize to her. Hmph. Troublesome girl…she does look kind of cute though. Wait…what am I saying!? Stupid Hormones. Suppress! Suppress!" _

Paul growled inwardly, hoping that it would make this strange feeling in him go away.

He had never felt it before, and he didn't want to feel it again.

Is this what love felt like? He didn't want to know, because he was **The Paul,** and **The Paul** didn't show any emotion at all to other people.

He directed his attention to the trees around him and grumbled, "Some small forest this is."

He continued to walk while looking past the trees around him as best as he could.

They seemed to go on forever. Just like this road seemed to go on forever.

He focused his attention in front of him and noticed that Dawn was twirling around like a ballerina as she walked, or skipped, or whatever you want to call it. She was twirling and bouncing around like she was high on caffeine, and she seemed to be unaware of where she was going. Just watching her made him feel dizzy.

He stopped walking and closed his eyes so the dizzy feeling would go away, and while he did a loud "SMACK" was heard and he felt something vibrate ever so slightly close to him.

He opened his eyes and noticed that Dawn, being the ditz that she was, had ran into a tree. In fact she was still standing. Then slowly, she peeled herself of the tree and turned around looking at Paul, her lips quivering and her eyes watering.

"_Oh no,"_ Paul thought. "_She's gonna cry. Please do not cry, please do not cry. I don't like it when girls cry." _

"Troublesome," Paul said cautiously, "Are you alright?"

Dawn looked at him for a minute and sniffed before replying feebly.

"Yes, I'm alright. No need to worry."

She turned to her right and began to shuffle down the path, trying her best not to start crying.

She would NOT cry.

That would only make her appear weak in front of Paul.

Paul watched her shuffle off.

He started to follow her but was stopped by a buzzing sound. He turned around and looked at the tree that Dawn had just run into and saw an angry Beedrill looking at him.

He froze.

Any sudden movements would make the Beedrill come after him.

"_Don't worry Paul," _he thought to himself, _"It's only one. Just stay calm. It's only one…"_

His thoughts were interrupted as another appeared beside the first Beedrill. And another, and another, and another, and another, until there were at least twenty Beedrill in front of him, all staring angrily at him. Now Paul was not one to run away from danger, but there were exceptions. There's no way Dawn's weak pathetic little Pokémon could battle just 2 of these wild Beedrill. And even though his Pokémon were strong, there were twenty of them. The only other option at the moment would be to run.

The lead Beedrill of the group grinned evilly, as it started to power up for its Pin Missile move. If Pokémon could speak, the Beedrill would probably say "You better start running". And that's exactly what Paul did.

He took off running towards Dawn.

"Troublesome!" he yelled angrily, "You ran into a tree that housed a Beedrill nest! Start running!"

Dawn turned around and saw Paul running towards her; with twenty angry Beedrill behind him all using their Pin Missile move.

"Eep!" she squeaked.

She quickly turned around and began to run.

Now, to cut things short, for the next hour or so Dawn and Paul ran through the forest dodging various attacks that the Beedrill threw at them. And if that wasn't bad enough, the rest of the forest Pokémon were mad at the two trainers for disturbing the nest of Beedrill, so they **also **started to chase the two trainers and fire attacks at them.

And what about Zero and Najika?

Well, let's just say Zero was chasing the two trainers for the heck of it and Najika was being dragged along by the collar by Zero, who accidentally kept shocking her because she was 3 feet away and he kept on using his discharge attack.

Poor Paul and Dawn, it just couldn't get any worse, now could it? I mean, they were being chased by a stampede of forest Pokémon who were constantly firing at them. NOTHING could be worse than this right?

WRONG! Fate loved to play with Paul and Dawn, and it just happened to think it would be funny if it started to rain. It also thought that it would be funny if they both slipped and fell face flat into a mud puddle. So here were Paul and Dawn, still running from the stampede of Pokémon while being soaking wet and covered in mud at the same time.

By this time it was nighttime, and for once their luck changed.

They finally got out of the forest and they were running on the seaside route.

But alas, there was a disadvantage to this.

They were now in wide open spaces with nowhere to take cover from the attacks, and they were also exposed to the public. Yes, anybody who was out on the route with an umbrella would see two teenage trainers soaking wet and covered in mud running from a herd of angry Pokémon.

Mind you, this was NOT the kind of thing you would want to happen to you in public, I mean, it could totally degrade your status as a trainer, and we all know that is _very_ bad if you want to compete in a contest or in the Sinnoh league. You would soon be known as the mud covered boy or girl who did something so _bad _it made all the forest Pokémon on one route start to chase you.

Luckily, the only trainers out on this route were Brock and Ash, whom the latter was laughing his guts out while the other was staring at the two mud covered trainers with a giant sweat drop on his forehead.

"Well…at least Dawn didn't have to go through the forest by herself." Brock said as he continued to stare at the two trainers who were getting closer to them.

"Ahhahahahaha! Look at Paul! He's covered in mud!" Ash continued to bellow at the sight of his rival.

He couldn't wait to use this against him in the future.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! Get out of the way!" Paul and Dawn yelled at the same time as they ran past Brock and Ash.

Ash, finally recovering from his laughing fit, quickly ordered Pikachu to use thunderbolt on all the forest animals. It was a success since all the animals were electrocuted because they were soaking wet, and after snapping out of their daze they began to head back into the forest.

All except two that is. Najika/Eevee had passed out sometime ago after being shocked by Zero for the 50th time and Zero/Pachirisu was still recovering from being shocked.

Brock noticed this.

"Hey look Ash! A wild Eevee and Pachirisu! You should try to catch that Eevee. You can only catch them near Hearthome city so this is a rare find! I can try to help that Pachirisu because it looks like it took Pikachu's thunderbolt pretty hard." Brock knelt down and began to rummage through his bag as he looked for some medicine.

"Okay! Alright Pikachu go- oh, it's already knocked out. Guess I better get a poke ball." Ash quickly began to search through his bag for an empty poke ball.

Zero finally snapped out of his daze and realized what Ash was about to do and panicked.

"_Ahhhh! Oh no! Our plan will be foiled! Retreat! Retreat!"_

Zero/Pachirisu quickly jumped up.

"Alright! Go poke- AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Ash screamed as he was electrocuted by Zero's discharge.

Zero quickly used his powers to teleport Najika and him out of the area and to the next city's Poke center.

"Hmmmm. I didn't know Pachirisu could learn teleport." Brock commented as he looked at the twitching figure of Ash.

"Wo-wow. Th-that discharge wa-was almost a-as strong as Pik-pikachu's thunderbolt." Ash stuttered feebly before he passed out.

Brock sweat dropped and then got up.

He picked up Ash and his bag and began to carry him towards the next city. Pikachu followed beside him. Suddenly Brock noticed that Paul and Dawn were nowhere in sight.

"Hmm, they must have just kept running towards the next city without realizing that they were safe."

"Pika pika."

The two travelers continued on their trek towards Sunyshore City……

_Now onto Dawn and Paul……_

Dawn and Paul gasped for air as the collapsed in front of the city gates.

They had realized some time ago that the Pokémon had stopped chasing them, but because it was still raining they decided that they would just keep on running until they reached the city. Of course, they didn't consider the fact that they would have to run another 12 miles, and so by the time they had been able to drag themselves into the Poke center, they were a wet muddy mess whose legs felt like taffy.

Other trainers stared at them as Dawn crawled up to the desk and asked Nurse Joy for a room for 2.

"Of course, here you go dear. Make sure you two get cleaned up and have a good nights rest. Your room is on the 3rd floor. You'll be sharing with 2 other trainers." Nurse Joy said in a chirpy voice like all was well with the world.

HOW could she act like that!? They now had to climb 2 freaking flights of stairs just to get to their room. Didn't she notice that they were dog tired and soaking wet!?

Apparently not.

What made it worse was that there was no elevator. Plus, they also had too share a room with two other people. Dawn could already imagine the looks on their faces as Dawn and Paul staggered into the room.

She gave a feeble thank you and began to head over to the stairs with Paul in tow, ignoring the other stares given to them by the other trainers. She really didn't care at the moment; all she could think about was getting to their room and taking a nice, hot, relaxing, bath.

As they began to climb the stairs, Paul broke the silence.

"I'm taking a shower first, Troublesome."

"WHAT!?"

"Yeah, you heard me. It's your fault that those Beedrill chased us. If you had been watching where you were going you wouldn't have run into that tree. If you wouldn't have run into that tree our legs wouldn't be feeling like taffy right now and we wouldn't be covered in mud."

"But that's not fair! I'm a girl! Girls can't stand being dirty. Besides, haven't you ever heard of _Ladies First_?"

"Yeah, I have. But if I recall that has to do with going through doors, not taking a shower."

Dawn glared angrily at him.

She couldn't think of a comeback because she was so tired. He had a point though. If she had been watching where she was going, this whole running for your life thing wouldn't have happened. Well, she had just been having fun.

"Well I was just having fun. Something you will probably never understand."

"You can have fun while keeping your eyes open and watching where you're going." He stated.

Dawn pouted.

She hated it when he was right. Just when she thought that she had beaten him at his game of wits, he came bouncing back with an even better remark.

"Here we are. Room 78." Paul suddenly said.

Dawn got out the key and inserted it into the lock. She slowly began to turn the handle…

* * *

**Alright chapter 4 is done! I haven't started writing chapter 5 yet, so who knows when I'll update. Hopefully in the next week or so. I have an idea what it's going to be about. Here's a challenge for you readers, who do you think the two trainers are going to be. Do you think that they will just be random or do you think that they will be someone that either Paul or Dawn know? Put your guesses in the reviews! I'll tell you who they are the next time I update this story! To the people who favorited this story and put it on alert, you guys rock! - Secret Agent 99 **


	5. Chapter 5

**Huzzah! I finished the last chapter! In under two days! Woot! And it's over 8700 words! Man that's long! Much longer than I thought it would be! Thanks to **kiara411** for reviewing! **

**I told you in the last chapter to guess who the roommates were and I said I would reveal who they are in this chapter. Sooooo -drumroll- the roommates are Zero and Najika! What craziness will occur!? Well, read to find out! **

**Notes: Paul is a little OOC in this chapter, Ash is a little OOC, there is one-sided Najika**X**Paul on Paul's side, there is one-sided Najika**X**Zero on Zero's side, there is kinda one-sided Najika**X**Riku on Najika's side, if you want to know more about Hastings go to my page and scroll down till you find his bio. **

**Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon, Kingdom** **Hearts, MySpace, or the Sharpie Marker. I do own my fan characters Zero, Najika, Sinbad, and Hastings. I also own the title for the newspaper at the end of the chapter. Riku, Sora, and Kairi are from Kingdom Hearts for those who don't know.**

**Key:**

"Blah blah" - talking

_"Blah blah"_ - thinking

_blah blah blah _- Paul's conscience

**French Phrases:**

**oi- just and expression, nothing more. It's like "oh!"**

**mon ami- I think it means 'friend' or 'my friend'.**

* * *

Chapter 5: Jealousy, Confessed Feelings, and New Plans

_15 minutes before Dawn and Paul opened the door…_

Najika walked out of the adjoining bathroom after getting done with her shower and into the bedroom that she and Zero were staying at the Poke center.

She sighed and plopped down on her bottom bed of the bunk bed and leaned against Moon, her Persian which she had caught as a Meowth in Kanto.

Najika was dressed in a blue tank top that matched her eyes and she was wearing flannel pants that had several shades of blue in them. The tank top flattered her figure very well. Her hair was let down and it caressed her back and shoulders.

She stared at Zero who was on the other side of the room lying on his bed reading a book.

Ever since that one incident, Najika has always had one of her Pokémon stay out of their Poke ball and sleep with her at night either on her bed or next to her bed.

(You'll find out about that later though.)

It had become part of her routine and she never slept well without one of her Pokémon by her side.

"Zero, why were we in the Poke center when I woke up?"

"Ash decided to try and catch you and I panicked and teleported us to the nearest Poke center." Zero replied without looking up from his book.

Najika slapped her forehead.

"You idiot! I can't believe you did that! Don't you know that Pachirisu can't learn teleport!? What if Brock and Ash become suspicious?"

"Calm down. If they get suspicious they'll probably just think that it was Mew in the form of a Pachirisu and it used the move teleport to get away."

"But you can't find Mew here in Sinnoh!"

"They'll think it migrated."

"Since when do Mews migrate?"

"I don't know, but it's a good answer."

Najika sighed.

It was bad enough that Zero had made that error, but what was worse is that they may get two other roommates since there were two extra beds in the room. She would absolutely die if Zero embarrassed her.

"Zero, why are there four beds in the room? We only needed two."

"Nurse Joy said all the others were filled up."

"Well, at least we got the job done. Now can I leave?"

"No, tomorrow we're going to find Paul and Dawn and stalk them some more."

"Oh come on! Why do you need me for that? You can use your magic to make yourself invisible! And besides, I would like to get some training done. That baby Charmander I have has MAJOR potential and could be a league Pokémon once it evolves into Charizard! The longer I wait the more time I lose! I mean seriously, you're acting like you want me around!"

Zero didn't reply.

"_For heavens sake, why won't he say something? I mean, come on it is only me-oh……"_

Najika quickly remembered why he didn't reply.

He _liked _her.

Ever since he turned 17 he had liked her. Ever since they first met it had always been like a brother sister relationship, but once he had turned 17 he had developed a crush on her. The problem was Najika didn't like him back like that, and chances are she probably never will.

"_Najika, you idiot." _

She mentally scolded herself.

"_I can't believe you forgot. You probably hurt his feelings, you bad girl. I can't believe you didn't remember that you promised yourself that you wouldn't talk about that around him because you didn't want to hurt his feelings. I mean, I __**think**__ he knows that I don't like him, but he keeps on trying to get me to like him and you told yourself that the best way to deal with it was to not bring the subject up and just put up with him. You know what? He could have totally done this whole matchmaking thing by himself. I know he's capable of doing it himself. He probably only made me come along because he wanted to spend time with me. Ughhhhhhh….now I have to apologize….." _

Najika's thoughts were interrupted as she heard a key being inserted into the lock.

She looked over to the door and Zero looked up from reading his book. Moon focused his attention on the door and let out a small growl.

"Shhh, quit it Moon." Najika whispered harshly.

Sometimes her Pokémon were a little _too _protective of her.

The door opened revealing a mud covered Dawn and Paul.

Zero gaped at them.

This could not be happening! Now how could he plan his evil schemes? He certainly couldn't do it while they were here.

Moon buried his face under the pillow to keep from laughing out loud and Najika just stood there with a look of utter shock on her face. A boy other than all her male Pokémon and Zero was seeing her in her night clothes, even if they were simply pants and a tank top.

Dawn stared at Zero and Najika and then at Moon while Paul just stared at Najika. It was like the whole world had stopped for him.

"_Crud, she's hot…." _was constantly playing over and over in Paul's head like a broken record player.

Then the silence was broken by Dawn.

"Najika! It's really you! It's been so long!"

Dawn dropped her bag and dashed over to her and tried to give her a hug.

"Ahh! No! Mud! Clean!" were the only words that Najika could say as she held out her arms to stop Dawn from engulfing her in a muddy mess.

"Oh! I'm sorry! I forgot." Dawn said sheepishly as she stopped leaning in to try and hug her.

"It's been so long! I can't believe that we're sharing the same room! Oh, and Zero! It's nice to see you too!" she said quickly as she quickly turned her attention back to Najika.

"How you've been? Have you caught any more Pokémon? Do you have a boyfriend? Why are you here…" Dawn was cut off by Najika.

"Whoa girl. Calm down a bit. Ummmm, I've been fine. No, I haven't caught any more Pokémon. No, I don't have a boyfriend and… I'm here because I wanted to train some of my Pokémon on the seaside route."

Najika felt guilty about lying about that last part, but she had to or else Paul would have know that it was Zero who had ambushed him AND that Najika was the one who hit him on the head. She also had to pretend that she didn't know why they were covered in mud or why they were traveling together.

Ugh, she hated lying to her friend.

"So……" Najika started off, noticing that Paul was still staring at her like she was a goddess; which kind of disturbed her a little bit; "Are you going to introduce me to your boyfriend?"

"Huh? Wahh! He's not my boyfriend. Uh, Paul this is Najika. Najika this is Paul. He's Ash's rival. Uh, Najika's a friend of Ash and Brock and is the Kanto, Hoenn, and Sinnoh league champion but she declined all offers to officially become the champion of each region because when she beat the Kanto league she wanted to go off to Hoenn and when she beat the Hoenn league she wanted to go off to Sinnoh and when she beat the Sinnoh league she wanted to take a vacation and that was 2 years ago and I met her 5 months ago in Hearthome city when Ash was getting his 5th gym badge and she's done taking her vacation and she's starting to train some Pokémon that she hatched from eggs." Dawn said quickly trying to hide the blush on her face.

She couldn't believe that Najika thought that Paul was her boyfriend. How embarrassing.

Najika smiled at Paul, much to Zero's dismay.

"Nice to meet you Paul. Why don't you two get settled in? By the way, how'd you two get covered in mug?"

She looked at both of them with a raised eyebrow.

"Uh, long story. I'll have to tell you over lunch or something." Dawn said.

"What am I? Chopped liver or something?" Zero said in an annoyed voice.

It was bad enough that Dawn and Paul were their roommates and that he had been basically ignored the whole time that they had been here, but what was worse was that Paul was checking Najika out.

First off, that wasn't part of the plan and secondly, it made Zero's blood boil. There was NO WAY he was going to let Paul get Najika. He'd make sure of that. If anyone was going to get Najika, it was HIM.

"Oh, sorry about that." Najika said while scratching her head.

"Paul, this is Zero. We've known each other for 6 years and he's one of my best friends. Zero, this is Paul." Najika said while getting up and standing in-between them.

"Whatever," Zero grumbled while eyeing Paul.

If looks could kill Paul would be dead right now.

Paul eyed Zero.

If looks could kill Zero would be dead right now.

Najika sweat dropped. She hated it when two boys fought over her, or in this case, were possibly going to fight over her. It never ended well. She knew that way too well as previous experiences flashed through her mind.

"_Crud, so much for trying to get Paul and Dawn together. Now Paul likes __**me**__."_

Dawn watched the invisible sparks fly between the two boys. She felt angry, but she didn't know why.

She felt as if to Paul she didn't exist.

"_What is wrong with me? Am I getting jealous? No! I can't be! I don't like Paul! I mean, he's a heartless jerk after all. Why should I care if he likes Najika? I mean he probably doesn't even like me back…" _Dawn paused as the previous experiences from earlier today flashed through her mind.

"_Who am I kidding? I do like Paul! And maybe Paul likes me after seeing the way he's acted today…and Najika's taking him away from me! Wait…" _Dawn stopped thinking and then corrected herself.

"_No, Najika is not taking him away from me. She's not flirting with him or anything. All she is doing is being her normal friendly self. So who cares if she has a better body than me, or if she's a better trainer than me, or if she isn't as annoying and troublesome as me… or if she's single…or if she does a better job than what I do at everything…" _

Dawn felt herself losing hope.

Whatever Dawn could do, Najika did 5 times better. Najika was also Paul's age, while Dawn was a couple of years younger than him. How could she beat that? She began to feel very jealous of Najika, and suddenly Dawn felt very determined to make Paul stop liking Najika and start liking her. She directed her attention back towards the boys, who had still been silent after another 30 seconds had passed.

Paul was the one to break the ice.

"Nice to meet you" He said gruffly.

He turned towards Najika.

"Nice to meet you too." He said in a gentler voice.

Both Dawn and Zero's blood boiled at this.

"_How dare he be nicer to Najika! He's being nicer to her than he usually is to me!" _Dawn thought angrily.

"_How dare he speak to her in a nice manner! If he wants to speak nicely to Najika than he better speak nicely to me!" _Zero thought as he glared daggers at Paul.

For Zero, this meant war.

And the only way he could get Paul to stop liking Najika is if he spilled that Najika had a major crush on some celebrity named Riku, who happened to be a key blade master, and that she had had this crush on him for the past 3 years. In the end once Paul and Dawn left Najika would try to kill him, but it would be worth it.

_An Hour and a Half Later…_

Najika sighed quietly. At least she had been able have some peace for the past hour. Dawn had been a talking machine for the first 30 minutes while Paul got cleaned up. Once he was done she had the room all to herself as once Paul got done taking a shower he went to go eat a late dinner and after about waiting 10 minutes after Paul left Zero got up and left the room also. Najika had warned him that if he or Paul came back with bruises and cuts all over them that she would send Zydeco, her trained to kill Mightyena, on both of them. She DID NOT want them to get into a fight over her. Once they had left for the next hour everything was peaceful. Dawn was taking a longer than usual bath, and Paul and Zero were both gone.

Yes, she was happy and content, but that was all about to change.

(POOF!)

"Oi, I sense some jealousy among us. Maybe among the female gender? A lot among the male gender. What do you think mon ami?"

"Yes Hastings. I sense it too. When you're part animal it's kind of hard not to sense an angry or jealous being."

"Oi, you still have not answered my question. Stop straying away from the topic, you idiot. You tend to do that a lot you know."

"No actually, I don't do that a lot. And stop calling me an idiot Hastings. Yes, I think the jealousy is among the female gender and the male gender and those person's names are Dawn and Zero. Dawn is jealous because Paul has developed a liking towards me. The problem is I don't like Paul, but he doesn't know that. Zero is jealous because Paul likes me and Zero has a MAJOR crush on me. Now please leave before Dawn turns the water off and hears us talking. People besides really, really good friends aren't supposed to know about my powers or Zero's powers. They are also not supposed to know about you or Sinbad. Dawn isn't a really, really good friend. I barely know her. She hangs around me because she looks up to me because I am older than her. Now leave and go, I don't know, go look around for some hats for me. I need some nice dress hats and you've always said that I have poor fashion sense."

"Oi, fine. I am just trying to help you. If you don't want my help, then so be it. I will go to Paris and look for some hats for you."

"Just don't max out my debit card okay? I don't think you need to spend thirty thousand dollars on a hat."

"But _of course_. It is _silly _to spend that much on _a_ hat. Good night to you, Madame."

He clapped his hands together and (POOF!), he was gone.

Najika rolled her eyes.

Knowing Hastings, he wouldn't spend thirty thousand dollars on a hat. He would just max out her debit card buying hats that all totaled **UP** to thirty thousand dollars.

She grimaced.

She would have a bill of thirty thousand dollars or so in the next week all because she told Hastings to go buy her some hats. That Wobbuffet of hers was crazy. When he went shopping, he went shopping. 

He always would tell her 'Najika, you are rich, so you much live like the rich. I will not have my trainer go out into public wearing a fashion disaster. It would be a disgrace. If you do not want to go shopping for clothes for you, then _I _will go shopping for clothes for you. At least I have fashion sense.'

Najika continued to think about all the money that those hats and any other clothes would cost, but she was interrupted by Dawn coming out of the bathroom.

"Ah, I feel SO much better now!" She exclaimed happily as she sat on the bed with Najika, gently pushing Moon's tail out of the way.

"So, where are the boys?" Dawn inquired.

She was feeling in a much better mood about things now that she had taken a shower. She was sure nothing at the moment could ruin her mood.

"After Paul got out of the shower he left and said he was going to go have a late dinner. Zero said he was going out. He didn't say where, he just said that he was going outside for a while."

Dawn blinked.

Great.

She wouldn't be able to try and have dinner with Paul because he would already be done by the time she went downstairs. Besides, it was already 10:00 p.m. Most restaurants would be closed by now. This made a question arise in Dawn's head.

"Najika, how long have they been gone?"

"Oh, about an hour or so. Why do you ask?" Najika raised an eyebrow at Dawn.

"Well…I just thought that maybe Paul should have already been in the room by now…" Dawn trailed off.

She was worried. She knew Paul sometimes trained late into the night and that he would stay outside for a while sometimes, but they _had_ run 12 miles and they were pretty tired by the time they got to the Poke center. If Paul was smart, which he usually was, he would have gone to bed by now. He not being here made her fear for his safety.

Najika smiled reassuringly at Dawn.

"Don't worry. I'm sure he's okay. Maybe he just wanted some time to himself that way he could ponder over some things, ya know?"

Dawn looked at Najika.

How could she act like everything was fine? Then again, Najika had probably met her fair share of people like Paul during her travels. She was probably used to people going out for a while.

"_I mean…" _Dawn thought, _"She __**is**__ able to put up with Zero everyday even though he keeps on flirting with her and he keeps on wanting to hang out with her, I mean after what I saw back in Hearthome City, it's pretty obvious that he likes her, yet apparently she doesn't like him. I wonder why? I mean, Zero is pretty hot…but I like Paul more. I'm sure of that."_

When Dawn realized that Najika was still waiting for her to answer her question, she blushed and quickly said, "Yeah, I guess."

Just then Paul and Zero walked in. They both looked fine, but Najika sent a death glare towards Zero. Dawn, Paul, and Zero all noticed this.

"What?" he said, "We just happened to decided to head in at the same time okay? Jeez…"

"Well next time Zero, make sure you tell me how long you plan to be gone. You had me worried." Najika finished and gave him a sickingly sweet innocent smile.

The minute Paul and Dawn left Najika was going to beat the crud out of Zero. Unless she ends up forgetting, that is. Zero sweat dropped and quickly walked over to his bed.

"Ehhehe, sorry about that Najika. Won't happen again."

He gave her thumbs up and a nervous smile.

In his mind Paul silently cheered on Najika. Yes, she was mad at Zero.

"_Dang, she looks cute when she smiles like that." _Paul thought.

What surprised Paul after that though was that he didn't seem to mind thinking about Najika being cute.

"_Man, I really think I like her…though I think I still like Dawn also. Wait. Did I just say that I liked Dawn?" _

Now Paul was confused.

He liked two girls now, and he just admitted to himself that he liked Dawn. Actually he just admitted that AND he admitted that he actually **liked **a girl. As in like like. Now what was he supposed to do? He had known Dawn longer than Najika, but Najika was far more pretty and she did everything better than Dawn.

_And _she was a 3 time champion.

That meant her Pokémon were strong also. Paul was quite surprised with himself when he asked Najika a question without thinking first.

"What Pokémon did you use to win the Kanto, Hoenn, and Sinnoh league?" Paul couldn't believe he had just asked that.

Zero and Dawn couldn't believe that he had asked Najika that.

"Hm? Oh lets see, for Kanto I used my male Charizard Zanzibar; he was my first Pokémon by the way; my male Persian Moon, my male Gyarados Napoleon, my male Lapras Zeus, my female Jolteon Icicle, and my Articuno Mystic. I think Mystic is male. For Hoenn I used my male Sceptile Xander, my male Mightyena Zydeco, my male Swellow Norrington, my female Raichu Ichigo, my female Ninetails Calypso, and my female Walrein Akane. For Sinnoh I used my male Torterra Xavier, my male Staraptor, my male Luxray, my male Floatzel, my female Rapidash, and my male Skuntank. The Pokémon I used for the Kanto team were all caught or given to me in Kanto, my Hoenn team was either given to me or caught in Hoenn, and my Sinnoh team was either caught or given to me in Sinnoh. The last 5 Pokémon I named don't have nicknames because I couldn't think of anymore good ones at the time that I caught them, and I don't know why almost all my Pokémon are male. I just seemed to catch a lot of male Pokémon. Maybe it's because I can think up of better male nicknames than female nicknames. I think I have like, 150 Pokémon in storage or something like that. I can't remember. Oh, and I caught Mystic by myself, he wasn't given to me. Does that answer your question Paul?"

Najika smiled at him.

Paul was shocked.

She had used a whole different Pokémon team each time she went to a new region? And she had caught a legendary Pokémon by herself?

He was impressed.

"Yeah. So why did you use an entirely different team for each region?"

Paul was itching to know.

He had basically used the same team through all the regions that he had traveled to and he still hadn't won a league. He would get pretty far into them, but then once he hit the Elite 4 that was where he would lose.

It drove him mad.

"The main reason is that my Pokémon needed rest after winning the league, and I usually had to head over to the next region a week after the league was over. Another reason is that I wanted to start completely new in each region that way I could show people that I can start off with 6 weak Pokémon and turn them into champions. All I had to do was give them love, care, and attention. Well, I also had to train them of course. Our bonds grew stronger as we traveled throughout the regions collecting badges and by the time we would reach the league we were nearly inseparable. I always told them that it would be okay if we lost, and that we were doing it because we loved to battle. Sure, I would be sad if we lost, but the point is that we had fun. My Pokémon gave their all because they loved me and they just wanted to battle and that's how we won. They knew that I would still love them even if they didn't pull through and that if we all wanted to we would keep on competing in the leagues until we beat them. It's as simple as that. Well, I should say though that Mystic was at level 50 when I caught him, but the rest of my Pokémon were level 50 also. But I didn't compete in the Kanto league until everybody was at level 58. My Kanto team is now in-between levels 70-75. My Hoenn team was around level 54 when we competed and I think they're in-between levels 60-70 now. The same goes for the Sinnoh team except everyone was around level 60 when we competed. So they really haven't gotten any stronger but that's because I've been taking a vacation for the past 2 years."

Najika finished and took in a breath.

She couldn't believe that she had said that much without taking a breath.

Dawn couldn't believe that Najika was so carefree when it came to either winning or losing, and Paul was surprised that Najika trained her Pokémon like that loser Ash did. To Paul though, Najika wasn't a loser.

"I see….." Paul said slowly, still trying to process what she had just said.

"So Najika," Dawn said quickly, "Why isn't Moon in his Poke ball?"

"I like to have one of my Pokémon sleep with me at night either on my bed or next to my bed. It makes me feel safe and sleep better."

"Why?" Dawn inquired further.

I mean, they were in a building with walls and doors with locks for crying out loud.

Najika's face darkened.

"Let's just say I woke up one morning with Sharpie marks all over my face."

Zero snickered.

"You should have heard her scream. I was down the street playing with some kids and all of a sudden I heard her start screaming bloody murder inside of her house. It took her 3 weeks to completely wash off all of the Sharpie ink. It was too bad that I didn't think of setting up a video camera inside of her bathroom. Wanna see what she looked like? I took pictures while she was asleep." Zero pulled some pictures out of his bag.

Dawn without thinking said yes and started to walk towards Zero.

"Oh no you don't!" Najika said quickly.

She dashed over to Zero and jumped on him, attempting to get the pictures. He moved aside but then she turned around and began to wrestle him for the pictures.

Paul and Dawn watched in shock and in amusement.

"Hey!"

"Ow!"

"Stop that!"

"Gimme those pictures!"

"Never!"

"Aha!"

Najika successfully got the pictures from Zero and ran over to her bed. She quickly ripped them into shreds and once she was done she had a _very _smug look on her face.

"Ha! Now nobody can see those embarrassing pictures of me."

Zero looked at the remains of the pictures and shrugged, a smirk creeping onto his face.

Dawn, Paul, and Najika watched him curiously.

"Oh well, that's fine with me. I can just go to my MySpace website to look at them."

"WHAT!? Why you little turd!"

Najika dashed towards Zero in an attempt to strangle him but before she could reach him Moon jumped in-between the two and pushed Najika back. Najika unexpectedly jumped over Moon and quickly punched Zero in the head, successfully knocking him out.

"Hmph. That's what you get for messing with me." Najika said as she massaged her right hand.

Paul, Dawn, and Moon looked at Najika before taking a few steps back.

"_Whoa, I never knew that Najika could get that mad." _Dawn thought nervously.

"_Man, I didn't know she could punch like that. She must be strong…" _Paul thought.

He unlike Dawn was impressed with Najika for knocking Zero out.

He secretly found it quite funny, his rival in love being knocked out by the very girl that he liked.

Najika turned around and faced them.

"Well, I guess we better get some sleep. You guys have had a long day and I need to get up early tomorrow to train. G'night you guys." Najika slipped into her bed while Moon layed down beside the bed. Paul and Dawn both got into their beds also. After a couple of minutes everyone had fallen asleep.

"_Najika or Dawn. Which do I like the most?" _were Paul's final thoughts before drifting off into a dreamless sleep.

_The next morning…_

The next morning didn't exactly go well for Najika.

It had started off fine; she got up, got her clothes on, fed her Pokémon, had breakfast, and then started packing her bag. She didn't plan to stay in the Poke center. She had an idea that Zero didn't either. They would gather their stuff, tell Dawn and Paul that they were heading off to the seaside route to train, and that would be it. Najika hoped that once they left Paul would go back to liking Dawn, but she had her doubts. Especially after the way the two boys acted towards each other last night. Once they were away from the city, they would go into their Pokémon forms, head back to the city, and trail Dawn and Paul around, just like Zero had planned. Everything would be fine if everything went as planned.

What Najika didn't count on is that Dawn had secretly come up with a way for Paul to stop liking Najika. Dawn would simply ask her why she didn't have a boyfriend yet, and she would ask this question in front of Paul. Dawn knew it may backfire since Najika may simply say that she doesn't have a boyfriend because she hasn't found the right guy yet. Dawn was hoping though that Najika would say 'that she liked someone else and she didn't know if they liked her back' and as long as that person that she liked wasn't Paul it would okay and Paul would stop liking her because his heart would be broken and there Dawn would be, her arms open wide welcoming Paul and he would end up liking her again. Dawn knew what she was about to do sounded a mean and it was DEFINENTLY not something that she would normally do, but under the circumstances, it was vitally important that she carried through with her plan.

"_I can at least try right? I mean, how else am I going to get Paul to like me and not Najika?" _

Dawn felt a little guilty and her conscience was bugging her, but she was still feeling **extremely **jealous about Paul liking Najika and not her.

"_I mean come on. Hasn't anyone heard of the saying 'All is fair in love and war'? I think it goes like that…" _

Dawn pondered whether that saying was correct, or if she was leaving out a word.

Dawn walked into the room and noticed that Najika, Zero, _and _Paul were packing up their bags.

"Huh? Where are you guys going?" Dawn was beginning to freak out.

Paul **could not **be traveling with Zero and Najika. He just couldn't!

"Zero and I are leaving to go train on the seaside route. We don't plan on coming back to the Poke center. We plan on going straight through." Najika answered without looking up from packing her things.

"Yeah, what she said." Zero also replied without looking up from packing his things.

Dawn looked over to Paul who hadn't said anything yet.

"Paul, why are you leaving?"

"I'm going to battle the gym leader. Once I get my badge I'm coming back to the Poke center and asking Nurse Joy if I can get a room to myself. I asked her earlier this morning and she said that some single rooms will be available around 3:00 p.m." he stated coolly.

"But I thought…" Dawn started out.

"Listen Troublesome, I said that you could travel with me until we got out of that forest. We got out of the forest and we're now in Sunyshore city, ok? Your friends should be here soon since we passed them up on the seaside route last night. Just wait for them in the lobby and you'll run into each other sooner or later. I don't need some annoying girl like you slowing me down."

Dawn remained silent.

She wanted to run out of the room crying, but she forced herself to stay and not cry. She turned towards Najika, still intent on going though with her plan and asked her in a clear voice, "Najika, why don't you have a boyfriend yet? I wouldn't be asking but I think that you're really pretty and cool so I find it kind of surprising that nobody has asked to be your boyfriend yet."

Najika turned around to face Dawn.

She was shocked that Dawn had asked her that question, and because she was so shocked she honestly didn't know what to say.

Paul had stopped packing his bag focused his attention on the two girls.

"_Just what does Troublesome think she's doing asking her a question like that?" _

Paul found himself to be getting unusually angry as he processed what Dawn had just said to Najika.

"Uhhhh…" Najika didn't know what to say. Zero found this as a perfect opportunity to tell all and quickly butted in.

"Oh that's easy. Najika has this HUMONGO crush on this celebrity guy named Riku. He's a wielder of the key blade and all the girls swoon at the sight of him. If you've never heard of Riku then you seriously aren't cool. She's been obsessed with him for 3 years and the only reason she still likes him is because he's stayed single his whole life and he hasn't even dated secretly. I don't know why she likes him as the chances of her meeting him are one in a million and he's too busy kicking some creatures' butts called the Heartless with his key blade along with his friend Sora to even travel over to one of the Pokémon regions, which is the only way that Najika would be able to even get a glimpse of him in person."

Najika looked at Zero in shock.

_**How dare he tell one of her secrets!**_

She could feel her face heating up. Zero now just made her look like a crazed fan girl. She could not live with that!

She didn't want Dawn or Paul to think of her as weird, and she certainly didn't want them telling their friends.

"Why on earth did you tell her that Zero." She growled.

"Because it's true."

"No it's not…" but she was cut off.

"Don't lie about it. That'll only make you look like a liar."

"But…."

"It's better to accept it than deny it and lie about it."

Najika gaped at him.

Dawn stared at both of them.

Paul stared at all 3 of them.

"_What? Najika already likes some guy? But…she said that she didn't have a boyfriend. Stupid. Just because she doesn't have a boyfriend doesn't mean that she likes someone. Did you really think that she wouldn't like some guy? I mean, she's a 16 year old girl who's freaking hot, for crying out loud. Why __wouldn't __she like someone Paul?" _

Paul felt like he had been hit in the chest. His stomach felt queasy and he wanted to get out of the room as quickly as possible. He turned around and continued to pack his bag.

Najika let out a loud sigh.

"Zero, you idiot. Of _course _I like him! Nearly every girl who's heard about him likes him!"

She paused and smacked Zero upside the head before continuing.

"It's just a silly little celebrity crush. So what if I had this crush for 3 years? I'll probably never meet him! I'm just one of his fan girl's dimwits. It's not like I plan to marry him or something. I **admire **him because he's cool, and yes, he is hot, but chances are I'll never meet him."

She turned to face Dawn.

"Dawn, the reason why I don't have a boyfriend is because I haven't found the right guy yet. I've had a lot of guys ask me to be their girlfriend but I turned them down because they only liked me because I was pretty or famous or rich or all of those 3 combined! I want a guy to like me for me, not because my Pokémon are strong or that I have a title or that I'm pretty. Yeah, it helps to be pretty, but if they don't like me for my personality and they don't mind my flaws, then I'm not going to date them. I hope that answers your question."

She now looked at both Dawn and Paul.

"It's been nice meeting you both and hopefully we'll meet again sometime in the future. Paul, good luck on your gym battle and good luck in the league. I'm sure you'll do well. Dawn, good luck in your next contest and tell Ash and Brock that I said hi and that I wished Ash good luck on his gym battle and in the league also. Zero and I have a tight schedule so we need to get going. Good bye."

Najika grabbed Zero's arm and dragged him out the door. She turned around and looked at them one more time.

"Oh, and by the way, I hope it works out between you two. Later!"

And with that she and Zero went down the stairs.

It took Dawn a moment to realize what Najika had just said. When she did blushed profusely.

"Huh? Wah!? Wait! Najika?" Dawn called out, but they were too far away.

"_What did she mean by 'I hope it works out between you two'? She wasn't talking about me and Paul possibly getting together was she!? Ugh, was it really that obvious that I liked Paul?"_

Dawn continued to argue with herself in her mind while Paul looked down the stairs where Najika and Zero had disappeared too.

"_So, she really doesn't like anybody then. Hmm. What did she mean by 'I hope it works out between you two'? She wasn't talking about me and Dawn was she!? How did she find out that I liked Dawn? I never told anybody. It wasn't that obvious was it? Ugh, stupid emotions. I've let my guard down." _

Paul could feel himself blushing as he pondered the thought about him and Dawn, together.

No, it couldn't work.

She probably didn't like him back anyway, and he didn't want to get hurt. That was secretly probably one of his biggest fears, getting hurt emotionally. Learning that Najika didn't like him had hurt at first, but once he learned that she didn't like anybody the hurt feeling went away.

As he continued to think, he realized that Najika was right when it came to why guys liked her. He had liked her because she was pretty and because she was famous, it probably wouldn't have worked out between them anyway. Now that that was out of the way, his mind wandered back to Dawn.

_Come one Paul. Tell her that you like her! This is the perfect moment!_

"_Are you crazy!? And besides….I don't think I really like her. It's just a silly crush."_

_Oh. my. gosh. I can't believe you just completely lied to me, your conscience. You should be ashamed of yourself. The silly little crush was Najika. You don't have 'just a silly crush' on Dawn. No, you looooooovvvvvvvveeeeeeeee her. _

"_No I do not!"_

_Loooooovvveeeeeeeee_

"_No!" _

Paul was beginning to get frustrated at himself.

_Loooooooooooooooovvvvvvveeeeeeeeee_

"_N.O. NO!"_

_LOOOOOOOOOOOOVVVVVVVVVVVEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!_

"…"

_LLOOOOOOOOOOOOOVVVVVVVVVVEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!_

"…_fine"_

_HE ADMITS IT! (Gasp!)_

"_Shut up"_

_You can't tell you conscience to shut up dimwit. No go tell Dawn that you llooooooooovvvvvvvvveeeeeee her!_

"…"

Paul sighed quietly. He couldn't believe he was doing this…

Dawn had grown tired of arguing with herself.

As she stared down the stairs, she suddenly remembered what Paul had said to her earlier. She felt tears welling up in hers eyes and before she knew it she started to head down the stairs, tears streaming down her face.

"_Is that all I am to him? Just a troublesome girl?"_

When Paul realized that Dawn was leaving, he quickly called out her name.

"Dawn wait!"

Dawn ignored him as she continued to head down the stairs with more tears streaming down her face.

"_Troublesome, why aren't you stopping?" _he thought angrily as he dashed down the stairs and grabbed her arm.

He turned her around and he was shocked to see her crying.

"Troublesome, why are you crying?"

"Is that all I am to you?" Dawn's voice cracked, "Just a troublesome annoying girl?"

Paul's eyes widened as Dawn began to sob quietly to herself.

"Dawn…"

He gently tilted her chin up and brought her face close to his.

Before Dawn knew what was going on he leaned in and softly placed his lips upon hers and kissed her. Dawn blinked a couple of times and gathering up her courage, she kissed him back. Paul wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her closer to him. After a couple more seconds they broke the kiss. Dawn found herself blushing when she realized how close she was to Paul.

"Dawn…" Paul paused, but then continued, "I… love you. You're my troublesome annoying girl and I like that. I love you just the way you are."

Paul waited for her to respond.

His heart was beating so fast and loudly he began to wonder if she could hear it.

Dawn was shocked. He loved her? Her? Of all people, he chose her.

"I…" she stuttered, her blush darkening, "I-I l-love you too Paul."

She inched closer to him and layed her head up against his chest. She wanted to stay in this moment forever. Paul found himself smiling as he rested his head on hers and held her close…

_With Zero and Najika…_

There had been silence between Zero and Najika until they had passed through the city's gates. After a couple of minutes, Najika pulled Zero off the path and into the trees so nobody could see them.

She slowly turned to face him.

Zero winced from the look she gave him.

"Zero… that was…"

Zero braced himself.

"…one of the MOST BRILLIANT things you have ever done! There's no way Paul could like me now! You deserve a kiss."

She leaned over and gave him a quick peck on the cheek.

Zero blinked a couple of times, still trying to process what Najika had just said and done.

"Uhhh… you're welcome…" Zero said as he passed out.

Najika quickly caught him before he hit the ground. She stared at him with a giant sweat drop on her head.

"Gosh, I didn't know that that would make him feint. Well, it looks like I'll have to carry him with me while I trail Paul and Dawn until he wakes up."

A smirk appeared on her face. She knew _exactly _which Pokémon she would turn Zero into.

_In Sunyshore city…_

A Ponyta with a scar on its face could be seen running through the streets with a Skitty on its back as it searched for something. Well, actually, it couldn't be seen as both the Ponyta and the Skitty were invisible. Najika/Ponyta avoided unsuspecting civilians as she made her way through the streets towards the gym. She had been running around the city for an hour and she still hadn't seen Paul or Dawn, so she assumed that they, or at least Paul, had headed towards the gym. She _had _almost run into Ash and Brock.

Literally.

_Flashback _

"_Where are they!? I can't believe I still haven't found at least one of them. I mean, it's pretty hard to miss a purple or blue head and-wahh!" Najika's thought were interrupted as she almost ran into Ash and Brock. She had been able to avoid Brock, but her shoulder had brushed up against Ash and since he saw nothing beside him, he gave a startled yelp. _

"_Ahh! Something touched me! Help!" Ash quickly grabbed onto Brock's arm._

_Brock sweat dropped at Ash. There had been nothing beside him. He was probably just imagining things._

"_Ash, there was nothing beside you. It's just your imagination."_

"_I swear there was! I wasn't imagining things…" Ash's eyes widened and his pupils dilated. "It must have been a ghost… Brock, there are ghosts in this city!" Ash whimpered and tightened his grip on Brock's arm._

"_Let's just get to the gym…" Brock said as he dragged Ash through the crowd._

_Flashback Ends_

Najika/Ponyta finally found herself in front of the gym. If she wanted to go in she would have to turn into a smaller Pokémon, but she couldn't do that while Zero/Skitty was passed out. He was too heavy for her to try and drag into the gym without running into anybody.

Zero/Skitty started to stir.

He slowly opened his eyes and found that he was on something. As his vision became clearer he realized that he was on a Ponyta's back.

"What the…" he began, but was interrupted by Najika/Ponyta.

"Oh good. You're finally awake. You've been out cold for the past hour Skitty.

Skitty? Why was he called Skitty? Zero looked down at himself and jumped, his hair puffing out.

"Gah! Why the heck did you turn me into a Skitty!?"

"Because I wanted to. I thought it would be funny, and I was right. It was funny." Najika/Ponyta said as she morphed into an Eevee.

"Meanie." Zero/Skitty said childishly as he morphed into a Pachirisu.

"Have you found Paul and Dawn yet? Are they together?"

"No, I haven't. I did run into Ash and Brock though. Literally."

"Lovely." Zero said sarcastically.

"Come on. Let's go into the gym. They may be there."

Najika/Eevee and Zero/Pachirisu quietly snuck into the gym. By the time they got to the battle arena, they were surprised to see Paul getting handed his 8th gym badge.

They were also shocked to see Dawn was with him.

Had he let her come with him?

Najika and Zero went to a corner so they would stay away from the main walking area and they focused their attention on the two trainers and the gym leader.

"Here you go Paul. I present you with the Beacon Badge. You've earned it. You put up a great battle."

Paul took the badge out of the gym leaders hands and put it in his own case. He said a thank you and headed over towards Dawn.

"Yeah Paul you won! I'm so happy!" Dawn said excitedly as she gave him a hug.

Paul smirked and hugged her back.

Najika's jaw dropped and Zero cheered silently in his head. His totally awesome plan was working!

Just then Ash and Brock came in. Ash spotted Paul and dashed over to him.

"Hey Paul! I challenge you to a battle once I get my gym badge!"

Paul smirked.

"If you want to lose, be my guest."

Brock noticed Dawn.

"Hey Dawn. What are you doing here?"

Ash turned his attention towards Dawn.

"Yeah, what _are _you doing here?"

Dawn smiled.

"Oh, I came to watch Paul's gym battle and cheer him on!"

"Really?" Brock and Ash said in unison.

"Yup. Oh, and I have something to tell you." Dawn paused and looked down at her feet, and then quickly looked up again at the two boys with a huge smile on her face. "Paul and I are dating!"

"WHAT!?" they both said as the fell down anime style.

"YES!" Zero shouted.

Dawn blinked and Paul looked around.

Najika quickly grabbed Zero and dragged him out of the gym.

"You Idiot! We didn't have the sound proof bubble up! We were only invisible!" Najika said once they were outside the building.

"Oops…" Zero said nervously.

_Back in the gym…_

Dawn looked at Paul.

"Did you hear something?" she inquired.

"Yeah."

"Well, where did it come from? The only people in the gym are the 4 of us and the gym leader…"

"Maybe we just thought we heard something."

Dawn thought for a minute.

"Yeah, it was probably just our imaginations."

Paul shrugged in agreement and then looked down at Brock and Ash, who had feinted from the shock.

"Do you think your friend and pathetic loser are going to be alright?"

"Yeah, I'm sure they'll get over it."

Dawn smiled as Paul pulled her close and kissed her.

When they broke apart Paul said, "I guess I'll have to start calling loser over there Troublesome now that we're dating."

"Hey! I thought that was my name!" Dawn pouted.

Paul smirked and kissed her again.

"Well then 'Troublesome', do you want to go get something to eat?"

"Sure!"

And with that the couple walked out of the gym, hand in hand.

The End

NOT!

_3 days later at Najika's house…_

Najika sighed happily as she stretched out on the couch. Finally, the matchmaking business was over. Paul and Dawn had got together and all was well with the world.

"_At least that's over, maybe now I can train my …"_

Najika's thoughts were interrupted as Zero came dashing into the room with a newspaper in his hands.

"Hey Najiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiikkkaaaaaa."

Najika nervously turned around and faced Zero, who had a mischievous look on his face.

"…What"

"Guess what I just read in 'The Intergalactic Newspaper that only People with Superpowers and who work for the F.B.I can read'."

"Uhhhhh…aliens really do exist?"

"No, wait, yes, that too, but I just read that there's a rumor going around that Princess Kairi, one of the 7 Princesses of Heart, has a crush on Sora, the key blade master! The problem is that Sora is too dense to realize Kairi's feelings for him! And you know what I was thinking?"

Najika paled.

She knew _exactly_ what Zero was thinking. And she didn't want any part of it.

But, for some reason today, Najika's mind seemed to have a mind of its own and it made her blurt out a comment that she soon regretted.

"Huh, kind of reminds me of Ash and Misty."

"No, I was thinking that we could get them together!"

"Zero…"

"But you just gave me a great idea! Once we get Sora and Kairi together, we can get Ash and Misty together!"

"Zero……"

"And after that we can get Drew and May together!" Zero said excitedly as ideas rushed through his mind.

"Zero………"

"(Gasp!) And after that we can get Gary and Leaf together!"

"……No."

"Huh?"

"I said NO."

"Why?"

"Because I will not take part in any of your other matchmaking schemes."

"Come on! It'll be fun and we'll have to travel to another world just to get Sora and Kairi together! It'll be a blast! And this time I can take a video camera with me that way we can record the whole thing and the tape will catch any funny moments that happen in-between the soon to be couples! We can then sell it to the media and we'll make millions!"

"NO!"

Zero sighed.

"Well, you'll have to help me anyway."

Najika looked at him queerly.

"Why?"

"Because I still have your diary."

"……Curses."

* * *

**Yeah! The story is done! I'm sorry if some parts were kinda sappy and if some parts were kind of rambling. I decided to make Paul like Najika for a while because I thought it would give the story a little more flare. Yeah, so I'm sorry he was OOC for that. So, I plan on making more stories similar to this but with different pairings, as you've read above. Um, I added Kingdom Hearts because I thought it would be kinda funny and I'm really into Kingdom Hearts right now. I liked the part where Najika commented that Sora and Kairi's relationship was similar to that of Ash and Misty's. Except Kairi is really nice and she doesn't act like Misty at all...I don't know when I will start on my next story. I may do the Pokémon shippings first because I know the characters personalities better than the characters from KH. **

**Ugh, I think Zero has an obsession with matchmaking. I'm sure you all thought he was kinda weird at the end of the chapter, but that's Zero for you. I decided to do more stories like these rather than start on my really long KH story that I wanted to do because I wanted to practice my writing skills and see what other people think of me as an author. Thanks to everyone who R&R's! -gives cyber cookies- You guys are awesome! -SecretAgent99**


End file.
